Education Plus Prevention

In addition to her work with Suppers, Dorothy Mullen is known in Princeton as the “garden educator.” Shortly after 9/11 Mullen started a community garden at Riverside Elementary School, and she has maintained it ever since.

The garden has become the focal point of a garden-based education program, in which all students at the school receive a dozen hands-on classes a year in the principles of gardening and in the differences between fresh grown food and processed food that makes up a large portion of the average diet.

Among some recent projects, students have made beet green smoothies with berries donated by the Whole Earth Center. They have also donated produce to the Crisis Ministry food pantry.

“The population we serve at the school garden is the same population we serve at the Suppers programs, except that they are separated by 20 to 30 years,” says Mullen. “At the school the program is preventative. At Suppers we are dealing with the consequences of that diet.”

For more information on the school garden project visit www.psgcoop.org.